Princess Marie of Greece
(1876-1940)

Princess Marie was born in Athens, Greece, on March 3, 1876, one of eight children of King George I (Danish) and Queen Olga (Russian). The royal children, Marie, Alexandra, Olga (died at 3 months), Constantine, George, Nicholas, Andrew (Father of Prince Philip) and Christopher were given a broad education. Marie loved Greece with a passion and always considered herself a daughter in the House of the Hellenes.

Upon her marriage in 1900 to Grand Duke George Mikhailovitch, she became H.I. & R.H Grand Duchess George of Russia. At Marie's request, and with the Emperor's permission, her marriage was held in Greece. Though she was to live in Russia for many years, her heart was always in Greece.

Princess Marie has lineage closely tied to today's European Royal Houses as well as the Russian House of Romanov. If she were alive today, Marie would be Aunt to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Great Aunt to Charles, Prince of Wales.

Settling in to married life, Marie and George built a palatial villa in the Crimea. Nearby was a vacation palace owned by Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra, the Czar's children, including her cousin the infamous "Anastasia," were frequent playmates of Marie's two daughters, Nina and Xenia.

In 1914 Marie convinced her husband that she should take their daughters to Harrogate in Yorkshire, England for the sake of Xenia's ailing health. A month after their arrival World War I broke out and Nicholas assigned Grand Duke George to inspect troops and hospitals. Marie and her daughters never returned to Russia. During the years spent in England Marie set up hospitals, worked with the Red Cross and did other charity work.

Photos coutesy Zwerdling Nursing Archives, www.nursepostcard.com

In July of 1918 her husband was imprisoned as a member of the Imperial Family; then came the shocking news of the assassination of Nicholas and Alexandra and their five children. In February 1919, Marie received word that her husband had also been assassinated by the Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg.

Marie remained in England for seven (7) years with her daughters, and between 1918 and 1922 it is estimated that she completed work on the four (4) notebook albums that have come to be known as KATOUFS™. The entire KATOUFS™ collection consists of around six hundred (600) images. The word "KATOUFS," which was whimsically illustrated in one notebook, is an old Greek expression that means "making a face." Rendered in gouache (French opaque watercolors), the KATOUFS™ are as brilliant today as they were nearly eighty years ago. Legend has that some of these images are her playful "character interpretations" of people she met throughout her life. Whatever her inspiration and despite difficult times, Marie took the time to preserve this unique humorous resource.

In 1922 Marie married a Greek Admiral. They lived first in London, then primarily Rome, with many visits to Greece. Her daughters, who married about the same time, eventually settled in the United States (Connecticut and New York). Marie traveled to the United States only once, sometime in the 1930s, to visit her daughters and grandchildren. At that time it is believed the notebook albums of KATOUFS® were given to her daughter, Xenia, who lived in the town of Glen Cove on Long Island, New York. Marie died on December 14, 1940 and was buried among cypress and pine trees near her father and mother in the family cemetery at Tatoi in her beloved Greece.

*On the maternal side, Princess Marie's great-grandfather was Emperor Nicholas I, the 15th Romanov Csar of Russia, married to Charlotte of Prussia; her great-uncle, Emperor Alexander II served Russia as the 16th Romanov Csar. Marie's mother was Olga Constanstinovna, the daughter of Constantine, who was the second son of Nicholas I and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg.

On the paternal side, Marie's great-grandfather was Duke William of Glücksborg and her grandfather was King Christian IX whose wife, Marie's grandmother, was Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel. Marie's father was William, the second son of Christian IX and Louise. Not being in line for the Danish throne he was asked by the Greek National Assembly to accept the throne of Greece. In 1863 he changed his name to King George I of the Hellenes. In 1867 he married the Grand Duchess Olga Constanstinovna of Russia, granddaughter of Csar Nicholas I. Together they ruled as King and Queen of the Hellenes.

Reference book:
"A Romanov Diary, The Autobiography of H.I. & R.H. Grand Duchess George"

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